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UNITED STATES V. VIOLET N. MACK and HEIR of CHARLIE BLATCHFORD, JR

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UNITED STATES V. VIOLET N. MACK and HEIR of CHARLIE BLATCHFORD, JR UNITED STATES v. VIOLET N. MACK AND HEIR OF CHARLIE BLATCHFORD, JR. IBLA 99–350 Decided May 20, 2003 Appeals from a decision of Administrative Law Judge Harvey C. Sweitzer rejecting Native allotment applications. AA-8149-A & AA-8184. Affirmed. 1. Alaska: Native Allotments A Native allotment application made pursuant to the Act of May 17, 1906, as amended, 43 U.S.C. §§ 270-1 through 270-3 (1970), is properly rejected where the applicant fails to overcome, by a preponderance of the evidence in a contest proceeding, the Government's prima facie case that claimant had failed to substantially use and occupy the land claimed, to the potential exclusion of others, for 5 years. APPEARANCES: Marcia Rom, Esq., Alaska Legal Services Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska, for Violet N. Mack; Harold J. Curran, Esq., Alaska Legal Services Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska, for the Heir of Charlie Blatchford, Jr.; Laura C. Bottger, Esq., Office of the Attorney General, State of Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska, for the State of Alaska; W. Findlay Abbott and Gretchen T. (Abbott) Bersch, pro sese and for Alice P. Abbott; Dennis J. Hopewell, Esq., Office of the Regional Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior, Anchorage, Alaska, for the Bureau of Land Management. 159 IBLA 83 IBLA 99-350 OPINION BY ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE GRANT Violet N. (Blatchford) Mack and the Heir of Charlie Blatchford, Jr., 1/ have separately appealed from a May 28, 1999, decision of Administrative Law Judge Harvey C. Sweitzer, issued after a hearing, rejecting their respective Native allotment applications, AA-8149-A and AA-8184, for certain lands on Yukon Island in southern Alaska. The hearing was initiated by Government contests filed against the allotment applications. These contests were initiated on remand from a prior Board decision. State of Alaska, 85 IBLA 196 (1985). Because the appeals involve similar factual and legal issues, they are hereby consolidated for review by the Board. The State of Alaska, appellant in the prior Board appeal, which had conflicting State selection applications filed in 1962 for all vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved land on the Island, intervened at the hearing in opposition to the Mack application. (Tr. 584, 591–93.) The right of the Abbot family, including Alice P. Abbott, W. Findlay Abbott, and Gretchen T. (Abbott) Bersch, to intervene in the contest proceeding was also recognized at the hearing. (Tr. 329–31.) 2/ Land owned by Alice Abbott consists of a 10.64-acre trade and manufacturing (T&M) site (U.S. Survey No. 4984, Alaska), adjacent to the land claimed by Mack. (Ex. 2.) That land had been patented (Patent No. 50-73-0126) to her husband in 1973, and is part of a larger 140-acre homestead entry (A-050795) (hereinafter, Abbott Homestead), which had been initiated by him on November 7, 1959, and later relinquished. (Tr. 48–49, 52–53, 84, 188, 197; Ex. WWW (Letter to BLM from W.F. Abbott, Sr., dated Oct. 23, 1964) at 1; Ex. 6 at 1–2.) The record indicates that Alice Abbott sought to regularize her access to the fresh water spring on the Mack claim by filing an application for a right-of-way (AA-59529) on September 5, 1986, which would authorize construction, maintenance, and operation of a buried pipeline. It appears that this application may still be pending before BLM, awaiting resolution of this contest. (Abbott Ex. A (Letter to A.P. Abbott from BLM, dated Oct. 20, 1987) at 22–23 .) Since each of the intervenors below is clearly a "party to [the] case" who might be "adversely affected" by the Board's resolution of the appeals challenging Judge Sweitzer's May 1999 _____________________________ 1/ Charlie Blatchford, Jr., died on Oct. 7, 1990. 2/ The Abbotts sought to intervene in order to protect their interest in fresh water obtained from a spring on the land sought by Mack and a right-of-way across the land to carry the water by means of a flexible hose to lands now owned by Alice Abbott, widow of William F. Abbott, Sr., and mother of Findlay Abbott and Bersch. (Tr. 14, 16, 18–20, 199–200, 314; Abbott Ex. A at 2 (Survey Map), 13, 16–17 (Motion for Summary Judgment, dated Feb. 17, 1997), 22 (Letter to A.P. Abbott from BLM, dated Oct. 20, 1987); Abbott Protest (Mack) dated May 19, 1981, at 4; Abbott Opposition to Motion to Dismiss, dated July 30, 1981, at 2 (Mack's claimed allotment is situs of a "spring house" built by Findlay Abbott in 1970).) 159 IBLA 84 IBLA 99-350 decision, they are properly recognized as intervenors on appeal. Nevada Division of Wildlife v. BLM, 138 IBLA 382, 390–91 (1997). Mack and Charlie Blatchford, Jr., who were siblings, timely filed Native allotment applications, pursuant to the Act of May 17, 1906, as amended, 43 U.S.C. §§ 270-1 through 270-3 (1970), 3/ and its implementing regulations (43 CFR Subpart 2561). They sought contiguous parcels of land located at the south end of Yukon Island, an island of close to 700 acres situated in Kachemak Bay off the Kenai Peninsula, within protracted Tps. 7 and 8 S., R. 13 W., Seward Meridian, Alaska. In her application, dated May 7, 1971, Mack, who was born January 13, 1936, claimed qualifying use and occupancy of close to 35 acres of land (identified as "Parcel A"), for hunting, fishing, and berrypicking, during the months from April to August of each year since 1949. 4/ She also noted construction of a "Shelter Camp" in 1959. In his application, dated May 4, 1971, Blatchford, who was born August 4, 1942, claimed qualifying use and occupancy of close to 160 acres of land, for hunting, fishing, clam digging, and berrypicking, during the months from June to October of each year since 1960. The two parcels of land are located across the Bay from Homer, Alaska, where Mack and Blatchford resided at all relevant times. It is undisputed that Mack and Blatchford moved, with their mother (Jenny Blatchford) and three siblings (Joseph, Andy, and Alan Blatchford), to Homer in the fall of 1949, following the death of their father in 1948. (Tr. 234–35, 738–39.) At the time, Homer was a small community of less than 1,500 people, including 4 or 5 Native families. (Tr. 178, 236–37; Census of Population: 1960 (Alaska) (Ex. D attached to Blatchford Reply to Abbott Second Response, dated Apr. 12, 2000) at "Table 8.") "The Mack Allotment lies on the southern coast of the island and the Blatchford Allotment runs through the center of the island from the eastern shore[, bordering the Eldred Passage,] to the western shore." (Decision at 4 (citing Ex. 2).) Thus, both parcels have ready access to the Bay and the applicants reached them by a boat trip of a little over one hour across the Bay from the tip of the Homer Spit, a distance of close to six miles. (Tr. 705, 719; Ex. 1.) ____________________________ 3/ The 1906 Act was repealed effective Dec. 18, 1971, subject to pending Native allotment applications, by section 18(a) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), 43 U.S.C. § 1617(a) (2000). 4/ Mack also sought another parcel of land (Parcel B) containing close to 96 acres of land situated in sec. 16, T. 6 S., R. 14 W., Seward Meridian, Alaska, between the Sterling Highway and Cook Inlet, close to four miles northwest, up the coast, from Homer, Alaska. She claimed qualifying use and occupancy of that land, which is located approximately two miles from her home, for about 10 months every year since 1949, especially during the winter, for hunting, clam digging, coal gathering, and berrypicking. (Tr. 293–94, 308, 355–57.) That parcel is not at issue here. 159 IBLA 85 IBLA 99-350 On June 13, and November 19, 1962, and February 18, 1963, the State filed State selection applications (A-057389, A-058326, and A-058732) for the surface and mineral estates of all vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved land on the Island, including all of the land subsequently claimed by Mack and Blatchford, pursuant to sec. 6(b) of the Act of July 7, 1958 (Alaska Statehood Act), Pub. L. No. 85–508, 72 Stat. 340 (1958), as amended. (Tr. 53–54; Ex. 2; Ex. 6 at 2.) The filing of the applications, which were regular on their face, had the effect of segregating that land from entry under the 1906 Act, subject to valid existing rights. 5/ 43 CFR 76.16 (1963) (now 43 CFR 2627.4(b)); James M. Wright, 95 IBLA 387, 389 (1987); State of Alaska, 73 I.D. 1, 6–8 (1966), rev'd, Kalerak v. Udall, No. A-35-66 (D. Alaska Oct. 20, 1966), rev'd, 396 F.2d 746 (9th Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1118 (1969). In addition, on July 9, 1962, the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Department of the Interior, applied for withdrawal (A-032306) of the entire Island, including all of the claimed land, from all forms of appropriation under the public land laws, including entry under the 1906 Act, subject to valid existing rights, for protection and preservation of any and all archaeological and historical values of the Island. 6/ (Tr. 47–48.) Notice of the requested withdrawal was published in the Federal Register. 27 FR 8323 (Aug. 21, 1962). Noting receipt of NPS's application on BLM's "tract books" had the effect of segregating the land from entry under the 1906 Act, subject to valid existing rights. 43 CFR 295.11(a) (1963); Peter Panruk, 43 IBLA 69, 70–72 (1979); Medina Flynn, 23 IBLA 288, 289 (1976).
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